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-‘FIFA’- *’Ballon D’or’* live(LIVE)streaming

On Monday, FIFA issues their biggest award, the Ballon d’Or trophy. It is awarded to the best player from the previous calendar year. The award was created in 2010 when France Football’s Ballon d’Or and the men’s FIFA World Player of the Year award were merged.

Since its creation, only Lionel Messi has won. That first year it was created, Messi’s Barcelona teammates Andres Iniesta and Xavi finished second and third in voting respectively. In the following two years, Real Mardid’s Cristiano Ronaldo finished in second, while Xavi and Iniesta have both finished third. Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player not from Barcelona to finish in the top three of voting. This will be the first time since the award was created in 2010 that two Barcelona players won’t finish in the top three. Bayern Munich star Franck Ribery joins Messi and Ronaldo on the short list of nominees.

During the award show they’ll also name the FIFPro World XI, FIFA Women’s World Player of the year and coach of the year for both genders.

Fifa official site will have the live commentry from the ceremony while many channels will be showing the awards live as well. We will get some free links to get you updated and enjoy Ronaldo getting the Ballon d’Or award :)

FIFA World Player of the year award ceremony started back in 1991 when most of the big league’s around Europe reformed and current Champions League format was started. Since than it has been an eagerly awaited gala every year and in the last 10 years it has gone through some big changes the biggest of them all was the merger of France Football’s Ballon d’Or award with FIFA World player of the year award.

The list of awards to be given out:

FIFA Ballon d’Or (Best Player of the year)
Women’s World Player of the Year
Men’s Coach of the Year
Women’s Coach of the Year
Fair Play Award
Puskas Award (Goal of the year)
FIFPro World XI (best team of the year)
Presidential Award

[ The ceremony is a glittering event where most of the big names in World Football get together for a celebrate and achievments of individuals and teams, we will have the free live streaming of the event right here ]

Now all the coashes and captain’s of national teams vote for the best playe of the year, so it holds significant importance. Next award gala will take place in Zurich on 13 January 2014 and we will have all the live action from the ceremony right here.

Bayern Munich’s treble success last season, as well as the team’s current great performances and results, have duly been rewarded. The German giants dominate the 23-man shortlist with as many as six players – four of which are homegrown talents. Arjen Robben (Netherlands) and Franck Ribery (France) complete Bayern’s bunch.

Barcelona, who were thrown out of the UEFA Champions League by Bayern on a 7-0 aggregate result, are the second most represented team in the freshly released FIFA Ballon d’Or awards list. 2013 Confederations Cup winner Neymar joins club icons Messi, Iniesta and Xavi.

PSG come next with three players. Flamboyant Swedish attacker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is in the running. The outcome of the World Cup qualifying playoff tie against Portugal might have a great impact on Ibra’s chance. However, the player himself has claimed that winning the Ballon d’Or is not his dream.

For Real Madrid, there is ex-Spurs talisman Gareth Bale and of course, Cristiano Ronaldo. The 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or awards’ 23-man shortlist is completed by eight top players from eight other different teams.

Remarkably, there is no Englishman on the list but there are a few English Premier League players such as Liverpool’s Luis Suarez and Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. Africa has one representative in the form of reigning African Footballer of the Year award winner Yaya Toure. The competition for the prize promises to be fierce considering the balance between silverware and individual performances among the nominees.

The list will be cut down to three in early December, as per the amount of votes.

The list is made of big winners. Carlo Ancelotti (French Ligue 1 champion), Rafael Benitez (Europa League winner), Antonio Conte (Scudetto champion) and Jupp Heynckes (Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League and DFB Pokal champion) are some of the names favourite to land the prize.

Does celebrated and retired Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson have a chance of being named the best coach of the year?

Which player and coach deserve to be crowned at the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala come January 13, 2014?

While everybody is busy putting their money on Cristiano Ronaldo for the 2013 Ballon d’Or trophy to be awarded to either of Ronaldo, Messi, or Ribery later today, an eye catching analysis on Fox Sports shows that the Frenchman will trump his rivals to the much-coveted accolade.

“The notion that Messi and Ronaldo stand alone atop the pantheon of football superstars will be shattered on Tuesday morning, when Franck Ribery collects yet another trophy for his growing collection,” goes a catchy punch line on the website.

The argument put forward by Fox Sports in support of Ribery is a reasonable one by any standards. Football is played for silverware, and looking at his trophy haul in 2013, the Bavarian talisman is simply a winner.

Indeed, does it help to do all sorts incredible things on the field of play but end up not helping your club to silverware?

Legendary Brazillian striker Ronaldo believes it should be Lionel Messi lifting the Ballon d’Or for a record fifth and not his Portuguese namesake Cristiano Ronaldo.

The 2013 trophy will be awarded to one among Ronaldo, Messi and Ribery in a few hours time in the acoustically superb 1455-seat Tonhalle Zürich concert hall of the Zurich Kongresshaus building complex in Zurich, Switzerland.

The Brazilian, who will attend the Gala as a member of the Brazil 2014 Organising Commitee, had this to say, “Cristiano has been amazing this year. But he has been like that in the last five years. Messi is a more spectacular player and I would vote for him if I had the chance.”

“A lot of people in Germany told me that the credibility of the Ballon D’Or could be affected if Ribery does not win it. This could have influenced the vote, even after Cristiano had that performance against Sweden in the World Cup qualifiers. The only certainty is that this Ronaldo here won’t win it for a fourth time,” he dug at his namesake.

No surprises whatsoever when FIFA announced Lionel Messi will be up against Cristiano Ronaldo and Franck Ribéry for the 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or. It’s an incredible seventh consecutive nomination for the man of every superlative, finishing third in 2007, second in 2008 and since has been victorious four years in a row (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012). The winner will be announced on January 13, 2014 at the annual gala in Zurich, Switzerland

The 2013 FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala will be the 4th year for FIFA’s awards for the top football players and coaches of the year. The FIFA’s Ballon d’Or awards will be given out in Zürich on 13 January 2014 where the winners of the awards will be announced. The three finalists for each of the awards are placed below;

Ballon d’Or: Franck Ribéry, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Women’s World Player of the Year: Nadine Angerer, Marta and Abby Wambach.
World Coach of the Year for Men’s Football: Alex Ferguson, Jupp Heynckes and Jürgen Klopp.
World Coach of the Year for Women’s Football: Ralf Kellermann, Silvia Neid and Pia Sundhage.

The contenders for this year’s FIFA Ballon d’Or award for the best player of 2013 and for the FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year 2013 award were announced today on FIFA.com, francefootball.fr and YouTube.

The new version of the prize started in 2010 after France Football’s Ballon d’Or and the men’s Fifa World Player of the Year award were merged.The winner of the inaugural 2010 Fifa Ballon d’Or was Lionel Messi, who has since emerged victorious two more times.

YEAR

WINNER

SECOND

THIRD

2010

Lionel Messi

Andres Iniesta

Xavi

2011

Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo

Xavi

2012

Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo

Andres Iniesta

The FIFA World Player Gala has been inexistence since 1991. During the last decade, it has undergone some significant changes, not least of which took place in 2010, when it merged with France Football’s Ballon d’Or award to form the new ‘FIFA Ballon d’Or’.

FIFA.com looks at what lies in store for attendees at the upcoming FIFA Ballon d’Or Gala.

Good to know:Lists for Women’s Player of the Year and for Coach of the Year for women’s football are disclosed on 25 October, whereas shortlists for FIFA Ballon d’Or and Coach of the Year for men’s football are disclosed on 29 October.

From the original ten names shortlisted for the FIFA Puskas award, a shortlist made of the three most popular goals based on FIFA.com users’ votes will be presented in early December with all the other shortlists.

The 55 players nominated for the FIFA/FIFpro World XI will be announced position-by-position – goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders and forwards – with the final list announced with the other shortlists in early December.

Argentina and Barcelona forward Messi has won the award for the world’s best player in each of the last four years, while Portugal and Real Madrid forward Ronaldo won the award in 2008.

France forward Ribéry has had a sparkling year for treble-winners Bayern Munich.

Gareth Bale did not make the cut from the 23-man longlist despite scoring 26 goals for Tottenham Hotspur last season before becoming the world’s most expensive player when he joined Real for £85 million in September.

The winner will be revealed at the Fifa Ballon d’Or gala in Zurich on Jan 13, 2014.

Fifa Ballon d’Or: Cristiano Ronaldo closes in on award ahead of Franck Ribery and Lionel Messi after voting is extended.

Ribery was arguably the most successful of the three as he guided Bayern Munich to a historic treble in 2013, only to then go on and win the European Supercup and help France qualify for next year’s World Cup.

Ronaldo endured a rare trophyless season, but that didn’t stop the Portugal international from shining individually as he banged in the goals in all competitions, helping Portugal to the World Cup with a sensational hat-trick against Sweden.

Messi enjoyed yet another impressive season with Barcelona as his goals helped the Catalans to the Liga title and the Spanish Supercup. The Argentine might have missed the last few months of the year due to injury, but had a fine 2013 nonetheless.

The award is given annually to the best player of the season based on votes by coaches, captains of international football teams, and even journalists from all over the world. It seems like everyone has their own favourite.

Some reports claim that Messi is way ahead of Ronaldo, while others claim that the 28-year-old from Real Madrid is in the driver’s seat.

According to a Spanish news agency, Agencia News, Messi will scoop the 2013 Ballon D’Or Award again.It was the same news agency that has announced the contenders for the award in 2012 even before it was officially revealed. Now, there are notions that the Ballon D’Or results were leaked and given away.

If Messi is to win the said award, Ronaldo fans wouldn’t be so delighted to find out, that’s for sure, since it was no secret that the Real Madrid star did well in the last season and even led his country to the World Cup after his amazing performance during the play-offs.

Furthermore, if Messi indeed bring home the crown, it will bring up questions as to how the player that will receive that award is really chosen. There is no question that Messi is one of the greatest players in the history of football. However, shouldn’t the “Golden Ball” be given to the player with the most extraordinary and amazing -performance during the 2012-2013 season?